Since the beginning there have been two main reasons I’ve been walking on the treadmill desk . Back pain management and Weight loss. Here is my quarterly progress report:

1) Back pain management update: As the title says and what I need to remember is it’s “pain management” For a while there my pain was %100 gone, yet I could always feel those back muscles twitching.  Always warning.  But for two months there was no pain. Then, the other day, after too much vigorous activity, my back kinda gave.  It’s hard to describe the different levels of pain vs warning that my back has at anytime. But this was the first time in a long time that my back actually was bothering me.  It was probably no coincidence that I happen to be going through a lag in walking on the treadmill (getting on it every 2 days instead of every day) What did I do? I got really depressed for a couple of hours and then I …jumped on the treadmill desk. By the time I got off, the pain was gone. I’ve been trying to miss no more than 1 day a week since then and the pain has not returned.  Although the weakness is still there. My conclusion: My back will always be natural weak. Walking is not going to solve that. However, walking is the answer to combating the pain. And before I get too depressed about the situation,  I need to remember that pain is the worst part and if that part is pretty much solved then I’m still doing ok.

2) Weight loss: This has been very interesting. After the initial 5lbs weightloss I hit a plateau and just maintained for weeks. I was incensed. I mean, what the hell? I’m burning 800-1000 calories at a time and I’m maintaining?? Is my body working against me? I think the answer is yes and no. Honestly, I’m at a healthy weight. My BMI is 23 which is considered normal. (Although I would like to be around 21.) But I’m pretty sure my body knows it’s at a normal BMI and struggles to stay there. So it was time to change it up a bit. I still refused to diet. I mean, hello, the whole freakin point of the weight loss side of being on a treadmill desk is so I wouldn’t HAVE to diet!!!  I needed to figure out, mathematically, what was going on.  So, I went to Target and got one of those mini white boards for the fridge and I wrote down everything I was eating. Turns out I was taking in like 2,200- 2,600 calories aday! Jesus! It’s funny how much your brain can fool yourself. Really, I thought I was taking in no more than about 1800 calories a day. (No wonder most of this country has a weight problem, I was way overeating and I considered myself to be conscious and educated!) I would highly recommend everyone doing this for a least a week. I bet most of you would be surprised, if not FLOORED, by how many calories your taking in when you thought you were doing  just fine. Ok now that I know what I was doing wrong (and knowing is at least half the battle right?) I decided the next step was to figure out how to make this work.  I mean the same rules still apply, it’s still basic math. So I used an online calculator to decide how many calories I should be injesting to maintain.  (Note: this was just to maintain considering the variables  for my weight, age and NO excersie other than normal daily routines. I left out my treadmill walking on purpose.)  For me it’s about 1700 calories a day.  So I decided the best way to lose weight, without really limiting myself, was to make sure I was eating enough to maintain (maintaining was always alot easier than losing!) and then making sure I burned an average of 700 calories on the treadmill each time. Now if you figure that I’m on the treadmill about 5 times a week that’s an average of about 500 calories less per day which according to most of the common wisdom out there should put me at losing anywhere from0.5-1 lb per week.  I am happy to report that since I’ve started this, I have lost 2 more pounds.  So it seems that I’m back on track. And I’m still staying true to my desire not to “go without”. (Still enjoying the Mexican and Italian lunches and dinners out, but I make sure to  mark those as  1K calorie meals )

For the most part I’ve been sticking with it.  There have been hiccups, but the results have still been worth it. This has been an exercise routine that I have kept up for far longer than any that have come before it.  So even when I get down on myself, I try to remember that and what I have accomplished.

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